


Five Times Sam Kisses Five + One Time Five Returns the Favor

by EchoesofMemory



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: 5 + 1 Fic, Agender!Runner Five, In which Sam is less oblivious than normal, Kisses, Other, Runner Five is confused, Slight spoilers for the end of season one and beginning of season two, but only slight ones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:54:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23484145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EchoesofMemory/pseuds/EchoesofMemory
Summary: To Sam, Runner Five is kissable, and all these opportunities keep cropping up.Five is just here for the ride.
Relationships: Runner Five & Everyone, Runner Five & Maxine Myers, Runner Five/Sam Yao
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	Five Times Sam Kisses Five + One Time Five Returns the Favor

**Author's Note:**

> I promise, I know how to write fic in formats that AREN'T 5 + 1.
> 
> PROMISE.
> 
> As usual (for me), my Five is agender and uses ey/eir/em pronouns.
> 
> Enjoy!

1\. Forehead

Sam isn’t thinking the first time. It’s after that long, cold run in the dark for em, and he’s sitting at eir side in the hospital – ey had made it there, sat down for eir post run bite check, and promptly passed out. Maxine said it was just exhaustion, and that other than being cold and having a few scratches from branches, Runner Five is just fine.

Sam, though tired and cold himself, refuses to leave eir side until ey wake up. Maxine just sighs, finishes wiping off as much dirt and muck as she can, and then leaves him to it.

Sam waits, to make sure she’s gone (likely to bully the mess into giving her food for him and for Runner Five when ey wake up) then leans forward and whispers to Five, “Thank you for coming back. I’m sorry for what I said. I promise, if no one else does, I’ll remember you.”

And then, because he’s punch drunk, been up for 30 hours straight, and has no one there to act as any form of sound judgment, he leans forward on the crate he’s sitting on just enough to press a kiss onto Five’s forehead.

(Later, Five tells him ey remember what he whispered and felt the brush of his lips, but considered it to be a dream.)

2\. Cheek

Sam does it again in the mess hall, but Five had left a small bag of chocolates, and a thank you note, on his bunk and he just can’t help himself. He bursts into the mess hall, narrows in on Five, and walks quickly over to em.

Ey turn to look at him, the tiniest smile on eir lips, and he sits down nexts to em, wraps em in a hug, and kisses eir cheek. “Thank you!”

Ey flush immediately and sort of shove at Sam. “You’re welcome.”

He gets up to get his lunch and then plops right back down next to Five, leaning against em.

Eir face is still red, but ey don’t leave until he’s done, and ey don’t move away.

(Five tells him later ey loved having him that close, and ey wanted to pretend, for a bit, that it was normal. Sam makes sure to sit as close to em as he can after that.)

3\. Neck

The next time is just an opportunity. Sam is walking past the recreation room, where Five is attempting to learn knitting from Jody, hunched over and frowning at eir hands.

Sam pauses and goes into the rec room fully. “What are you up to?”

Five yelps and jumps and Jody laughs at em. “It’s getting colder and Five wanted to learn to make a scarf for emself. I don’t think it’s gonna work out, though.”

Sam leans over the back of the sagging couch Five is sitting on, feeling em tense a little as he grins at Jody. “What number attempt is this?”

Jody immediately grins back while Five whines and abandons eir attempt at knitting to hide eir red face. “Attempt number six.”

Sam laughs and pats Five on the head. Ey rock forward to avoid him, and he’s drawn forward by the line of eir neck.

He only realizes what he’s doing when he feels Five shudder a little and huff. He immediately pulls his lips off eir neck and mumbles encouragement to em before leaving.

Not even ten feet from the rec room, he goes bright red and has to sit against the wall, because it just dawns on him he’d been kissing Five’s neck and ey hadn’t hit him.

(Five presents him with a scarf when it starts getting colder, red and blue and orange and only slightly wonky, and he beams at em. He doesn’t take it off until he absolutely has to in the middle of spring. It’s worth it, for the way Five’s face lights up and ey blush every time ey see him wearing it alone. Besides, it’s actually pretty warm, which is nice in the cold of the shack.)

4\. Injury

Five comes back limping and bloody, covered in mud and dirt and blood. Ey won’t talk about what happened on eir run and, after ey shower and eir injuries are minimally treated, ey go into quarantine.

“Just to be safe,” Maxine insists, but Sam can see in her eyes the same fear reflected in his own.

As the sun begins to go down, three hours after Five finally limped in, the runners and Sam show up, one by one, in front of the building holding the quarantine cell, staring down Janine and one of the Major’s men.

The pair don’t even object and let the whole group, all six of them, into the building with their bedding and pillows.

Five is curled up in the cell, facing the wall, when they walk in, though the noise the group makes has em sitting up and looking at them, eyes wide.

_What are you doing here? _ey sign, staring stubbornly at Sam.__

____

____

“You didn’t think we’d let you stay here tonight alone, do you?” Sam asks em. “If you turn, Five, we’ll be here, for you as you go, and to fulfill any of your last requests and, once you’re gone, to, well… make sure you’re at peace.”

Ey gasp slightly, and wipe at eir eyes, trying to hide the action.

None of the runners point it out, a kindness for all. Instead they busy themselves setting up their bedding, close enough for moral support, but far enough to be out of reach of grasping hands. Five sees this and helpfully reaches eir arm out of the grates, allowing Sam to move his pile of blankets a foot closer.

The seven of them spend the time talking and sharing stories – of lives before, of past runners, of the weirdest things they saw in the fall and immediately after. Simon tells a ghost story he insists was the scariest thing he heard before, and Jody recites some of her favorite fairy tales from her time as a kid. It doesn’t take long for Sam to share some of the fables from his family, and so it continues.

Eventually, they look over and realize Five is asleep, deeply and quietly, and they all peter off and shuffle off to bed.

Sam is woken by Maxine entering, and, though he’s tired, he sits up and watches her silently.

She quietly picks her way through the still sleeping runners and whispers, “Five?”

There’s a moment where nothing changes, and Sam feels his heartbeat pick up in fear and horror and self-loathing – but Five sits up and waves at Maxine, who laughs as quietly as she can, full of relief and near hysteria.

She opens the cell and treats Five’s wounds fully, now that they know ey won’t be turning grey.

Sam untangles himself from his blankets and enters the cell to sit by Five’s side, holding eir hand.

Maxine finishes and hugs Five quickly before leaving and Sam looks away from them and has to clear his throat a couple times before he can say, “Thank you, you know, for coming back and not going grey. Not that I want you to get injured like that, but… thank you for not making me lose someone else.”

_That I care about _goes unsaid. Five pulls eir hand loose, and hugs Sam hard. He hugs em back and they stay like that for a small eternity.__

____

____

Eventually, Sam pulls back and grabs eir hand again, lifting it so eir bandaged elbow is in a position for him to kiss the bandage.

Five gasps a little, and tears begin to track down eir face. Sam pretends not to notice, and continues to press gentle kisses to the various parts of Five’s injured body, though getting to eir twisted knee means he has to contort weirdly. He ends with the bandaged scratches across eir face, and then gently rests his head against eir’s.

Eventually, since it’s still dark, he drags his blankets and his pillow into the cell for them to share, and when the runners wake up in the morning to the unlocked cell and the pair of them curled around each other, they limit their celebration to what can be done silently, saving their whoops and cheers until they’re far enough from the building they won’t wake Five and Sam.

(It becomes a routine, later on. Sam will press kisses into every injury Five has after runs and, though it happens few and far between, Five does the same for Sam. Neither of them want the other to be injured, but they understand that it can’t be helped now.)

5\. Mouth

Sam does one final check on the scanner for zoms, then heads towards the gate to greet Five. Abel is still a mess, still in shambles after the attack, but Sam can’t leave Five at New Canton, especially after Nadia tried… that.

Thinking about it makes him incandescently angry, so he puts it out of his mind to greet the runner who is (not so) secretly his favorite.

Five doesn’t stop jogging once ey’re through the gates, just goes right to him and ey throw eir arms around him. “Thank you, Sam.”

He hugs em back, happy to be holding em, especially clean and free of blood and other mess despite the events of eir run.

Maxine makes him let go so she can check Five for bites, but he doesn’t go far and, once Five is cleared, he sweeps em back into his arms and continues to hold onto em.

Eir grip is just as tight as his, so he doesn’t think ey mind. Before he can let the thousand and one reasons not to kill his resolve, he pulls back just far enough to put some space between them and, as Five looks up with a question in eir eyes, leans his head down and slots his mouth over eirs.

Time stills for a moment, two, and then Five’s hands are reaching up to grab him and ey’re kissing him back. Eventually, they break apart to the sound of someone clearing their throat, and both flush crimson when the person is revealed to be Major de Santa with Janine at her side, hiding a smile behind her hand.

Five pecks Sam’s cheek and flees, doing eir level best not to look at anyone, but Sam can see amusement on the Major’s face.

She waits till Five is out of hearing range and grins at Sam. “I guess it’s obvious where Runner Five is staying, then.”

Sam’s eyes immediately drop as his face burns, and Janine loses her battle against professionalism and cackles.

(Five tells him that that was the best welcome home ey’d ever gotten and so, after every bite check, Sam waits for em to emerge from the hospital to reenact it. It never fails to get cheers from whoever happens to be nearby, but more importantly (to Sam, at least), Five always beams when ey see him waiting for em, which is the whole point to doing it, honestly.)

\+ 1. French

After they draw their rations and return their dishes, Five and Sam wander around Abel, looking at all the repairs in progress.

A light touch on his arm draws Sam’s eyes to Five, who signs, _It already looks better. ___

____

____

Sam nods thoughtfully. “Yeah, I suppose it does, though there’s still work to be done. But hey, we have you back now, so it’ll go that much faster.”

He nudges em playfully and ey swat at him, and suddenly they’re running and laughing like kids, Five dodging and Sam trying to catch em.

It goes on for a few minutes before Sam lunges at Five, catching em off-guard, and the two go down in a tangle of limbs and end up laying in a patch of grass watching the sky change colors as the sun sets.

The time passes quietly, before Sam feels another nudge and, though it’s too dark to see Five sign, he feels em tap out a message on his hand.

_W/H/E/R/E A/M I S/T/A/Y/I/N/G ___

____

____

Sam sighs. “The Major put you with me. You can take the bed, Five, I’ll sleep on the floor. I don’t want you to feel pressured or anything, but we really are short on beds. You need the rest more, though, since you’ll probably be back on runs tomorrow.”

Five tucks eir face into his neck so he can feel em smile, and then ey’re standing up and holding out a hand to haul him up, which he gladly takes.

The walk to his tent is short, and full of a sort of peaceful silence. Sam ducks through the door first and holds it open for Five, before zipping it shut and turning around.

Luckily he’d cleaned it some that morning, and he turns to Five and says, “I know it’s not much, but home sweet home! If you don’t like it or something, we can see if any of the other runners would be willing to have a roommate -”

Five grabs him and spins and Sam goes down, landing on the camp bed with a huff, while it groans. Five climbs on top of him easily and taps out against his cheek, _I D/O/N/T P/L/A/N O/N G/O/I/N/G A/N/Y/W/H/E/R/E S/A/M Y/A/O ___

____

____

While Sam blinks up at em, processing that, Five leans down and begins to press kisses all over his face.

“Oh,” he says dumbly, and Five must take that as permission, because ey kiss him fully.

Sam responds enthusiastically, because this is Five, and he really, truly loves em, which means kissing em is like a dream come true.

Five pulls back just enough to breathe, panting heavily and Sam tells em, “You know, I think I love you, Five.”

Ey still, and Sam has a single moment to panic before ey’re back to kissing him with a fervor. When he moans, Five takes the opportunity to slip eir tongue in his mouth, and they make out like that until they’re both yawning heavily.

Sam doesn’t sleep on the floor that night, or any of the nights that follow.

(Five tells him ey love him too, a whisper in the night, when he can see em signing in the morning light, every chance ey get. Sometimes, he’ll wake up in the night, and feel em tapping it out against whatever part of him eir hand rests against. He tells em again and again, before runs, after runs, whenever he feels like it. Maybe it’s because it’s the end of the world. Maybe it’s because they’re actual soulmates, but that feeling never goes away, and Sam refuses to stop saying it, because who knows when the last moment they have together will be? Both of them treasure every moment they get, the bad and the good, and that, they’ve decided, is good enough.)


End file.
